I READ A BOOK
First, a very strong rec to a great many of you:
Fire Logic by Laurie J Marks is like Avatar the Last Airbender for grownups in a world where bisexuality is the default (Except minus the jokes, alas)
Which is to say: a mutiple POV, morally complex story about a rag tag group of people with different elemental magics trying to survive and fix a fantasy world torn apart by war. The main character is dark skinned and into girls and there is genuine equality for women and lgb people (no trans, non-binary or intersex people afaict, but they may show up later) I'm a little fuzzy on the cultural references beyond the Fire nation invaders being Romans, a lot of it feels like generic Euroland to me (except that MORE THAN HALF THE CHARACTERS ARE LADY LOVING LADIES :D :D) but I'm not very observant.
My one serious complaint is that the first 70 pages or so really aren't much fun. It's all dry emotionally unrewarding setup and tense since you just know everything is about to go to crap. After that the writing style still isn't very evocative but I had a lot more fun and by the end was satisfied but still off to the library to reserve the next book. Also the world building felt a bit opaque, she doesn't quite have the writing talent to actually show everything she's decided not to explicitely tell. But the characters and plot were good, even if the writing was uneven. Note: one major character has rape in her backstory but it is never shown on screen and I thought was dealt with pretty well. The characters go through some other intensely harrowing things on screen, and lots of people die. And I'm still chewing over the way the magic healing interacts with sexuality and disability.
But still. Moderately good fantasy novel where the main character is a brown woman who finds a happy romantic ending with a girl. I will put up with a lot for that, and I suspect some of you will too :)
And now some books I failed to read (or wished I had):
Manhatten Dreaming by Anita Heiss: A chic lit book about an Aboriginal gallery curator who decides to use the chance to go to New York as a way to get over her douchey ex. I liked the main character but it was SOOO chic litty, and her ex was such a douche. I skipped to the end to see if she stopped pining about him and she had barely stopped and there was some annoying stuff about lesbianism and I gave up. If you can deal with that you might enjoy it.
Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas: TRIGGER WARNING FOR RAPE. Wish I'd had one of those. Can go into details if anyone's interested, but just...ugh. Also while not aggressively racist it's still about white people in India in the 19th century.
Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas: Probably fine, but by the time this arrived for me at the library I was REALLY not in the mood for Sherry Thomas and a hero thinking about wanting to dominate the heroine. Maybe another time.
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/537476.html. There are
comments.
Fire Logic by Laurie J Marks is like Avatar the Last Airbender for grownups in a world where bisexuality is the default (Except minus the jokes, alas)
Which is to say: a mutiple POV, morally complex story about a rag tag group of people with different elemental magics trying to survive and fix a fantasy world torn apart by war. The main character is dark skinned and into girls and there is genuine equality for women and lgb people (no trans, non-binary or intersex people afaict, but they may show up later) I'm a little fuzzy on the cultural references beyond the Fire nation invaders being Romans, a lot of it feels like generic Euroland to me (except that MORE THAN HALF THE CHARACTERS ARE LADY LOVING LADIES :D :D) but I'm not very observant.
My one serious complaint is that the first 70 pages or so really aren't much fun. It's all dry emotionally unrewarding setup and tense since you just know everything is about to go to crap. After that the writing style still isn't very evocative but I had a lot more fun and by the end was satisfied but still off to the library to reserve the next book. Also the world building felt a bit opaque, she doesn't quite have the writing talent to actually show everything she's decided not to explicitely tell. But the characters and plot were good, even if the writing was uneven. Note: one major character has rape in her backstory but it is never shown on screen and I thought was dealt with pretty well. The characters go through some other intensely harrowing things on screen, and lots of people die. And I'm still chewing over the way the magic healing interacts with sexuality and disability.
But still. Moderately good fantasy novel where the main character is a brown woman who finds a happy romantic ending with a girl. I will put up with a lot for that, and I suspect some of you will too :)
And now some books I failed to read (or wished I had):
Manhatten Dreaming by Anita Heiss: A chic lit book about an Aboriginal gallery curator who decides to use the chance to go to New York as a way to get over her douchey ex. I liked the main character but it was SOOO chic litty, and her ex was such a douche. I skipped to the end to see if she stopped pining about him and she had barely stopped and there was some annoying stuff about lesbianism and I gave up. If you can deal with that you might enjoy it.
Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas: TRIGGER WARNING FOR RAPE. Wish I'd had one of those. Can go into details if anyone's interested, but just...ugh. Also while not aggressively racist it's still about white people in India in the 19th century.
Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas: Probably fine, but by the time this arrived for me at the library I was REALLY not in the mood for Sherry Thomas and a hero thinking about wanting to dominate the heroine. Maybe another time.
This entry was originally posted at http://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/537476.html. There are
comments.